Astral block deal sees 1.8% stake change hands for Rs 885 cr; promoters likely sellers

Astral's jump in net profit nearly doubled year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 131.2 crore for the July-September quarter.

Around 1.76 percent Astral shares changed hands in a block deal on December 20, for a total consideration of Rs 884.6 crore. The promoters are the likely sellers, according to a CNBC-TV18 report.

A total number of 46.8 lakh shares were sold at Rs 1,889.8 each. In the previous session, the stock fell 1.56 percent to Rs 1,911. Compared to the closing price, the shares in the block deal were sold at a discount of 1.1 percent.

As of 9.18 am, shares of Astral were trading at Rs 1,939.35, higher by 1.6 percent on the NSE.

According to the latest data, the promoter held a 55.85 percent stake in Astral. This marks the first such move since September 2019 when a 2.4 percent stake was divested.

Astral's net profit nearly doubled year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 131.2 crore for the July-September quarter, while its revenue stood at Rs 1,363 crore, up 16.3 percent.

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Though the company's net profit jumped 90 percent and revenue rose by 16 percent, it missed street expectations. Improvement in the building material and equipment firm's EBITDA margin to 16.1 percent also failed to impress.

Despite the Q2 numbers missing estimates, brokerage firm Prabhudas Lilladher still believes that Astral is a consistent quality performer and it is a compounding story. "With strong performance in H1 FY24 and strong volume guidance of 15-20 percent with margin improvement in FY24, we maintain our FY24 estimates with 22 percent revenue growth with 18.2 percent EBITDA margin in H2FY24," it said.

The company declared an interim dividend for 2023-24 at the rate of Rs 1.50 per share of a face value of Re 1 each.

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